The primary sources of the Smithsonian document the history of art, culture, music, design, flight, space exploration, science and technology, landscapes and gardens, and native cultures in the United States, as well as the long history of the Smithsonian itself.

Discover archival collections related by topic and/or by names of persons, families, businesses, and organizations regardless of where the collection lives within the incredibly vast resources of the Smithsonian.

Connect with an archivist to learn more about and gain access to the physical materials.

Finding Aids

Archival finding aids, also sometimes called collection guides, are the key to unlocking information in SOVA. Each unique archival collection has a finding aid that provides the user with varying levels of descriptive detail about the collection, such as creator, biographical or historical note, content, subjects, names, forms of materials, how the collection is arranged, the context in which the collection was created, related collections in individual repositories and across the Smithsonian, provenance, where the collection is housed, and how to access the collection. Digitized content from each collection is also accessed via links provided in the collection's finding aid.

Finding aids are essential research and discovery tools that will help you understand the content and context of an individual collection and whether that collection will satisfy your research needs.

Summary

Materials are primarily in English. Additional material in Spanish or other languages.

Physical Description:

2 sound recordings

41 video recordings

39 motion picture films

Repository:

National Museum of African American History and Culture

The Great Migration is a unique, ongoing digitization service program that partners the National Museum of African American History and Culture with individuals and organizations across the United States to preserve their important analog audiovisual media. While major motion picture film and television historically lacked diverse representation, black history was instinctively being preserved in everyday home movies. Today, these personal narratives serve as an invaluable tool for understanding and re-framing black moving image history, and provide a much needed visualization of African American history and culture.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents

The collection contains 39 digtized home movies, 41 digitized home videos, and 2 digitized audiotape recordings. However, as an ongoing project the scope of the collection will continue to increase over time. The scope will be updated as is appropriate.

The content of the collection consists predominantly of amateur recordings created by families to document their lives. This includes major life events, such as birthdays, as well as family vacations and holidays. Additionally, the collection includes footage produced by professionals for broadcast on television. This particular footage entered the collection through partnerships with other memory institutions.

Arrangement

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into series and item-level records. Each series corresponds to a family or organization that has participated in the Great Migration program. Each item within a series corresponds to a single piece of audiovisual media, such as a film or videotape, digitized by NMAAHC staff.

Administration

Processing Information

Collection processed, described, and arranged by Ina D. Archer, Jasmyn R. Castro, Walter W. Forsberg, Alexander J. Lawrence, Harry B. McDowell, beginning in 2016 as part of the Great Migration Home Movie initiative. This project received support from the Robert Frederick Smith Fund of the National Museum of African American History and Culture Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

This project received support from the Robert Frederick Smith Fund of the National Museum of African American History and Culture Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

NMAAHC creates and retains digital copies, 2016-[ongoing]. Original analog materials are not retained by the museum.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation

Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Supported by the Robert Frederick Smith Fund of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Restrictions

Collection is available online for open research.

Rights and Reproduction

The Great Migration Home Movie Study Collection, is a product of and owned by the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.

Copyright for all works are retained by the creators of the original analog materials. Permissions for any use of the material may be requested from National Museum of African American History and Culture Right and Reproductions 202-633-3846.